Case against vet reveals “murky world of showing”
A light has been shone on the “murky world of showing” during a disciplinary case against an Essex vet accused of giving animals inaccurate height certificates.
The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) ruled it had insufficient evidence against Dr Marc Auerbach, of Oak Equine Veterinary Surgery, Ongar, Essex, in a hearing that finished last Friday (24 February).
All charges against him were dismissed.
But the panel concluded that some other person or people had been dishonest in the activities that surrounded the measurement of 19 horses and ponies in early 2009.
Dr Auerbach claimed he was duped by “skilled and practised manipulators” who presented horses that had been made to measure short by methods including sedation and dehydration.
The Joint Measurement Board (JMB) -the body responsible for issuing height certificates to equines taking part in height-restricted classes in the – will discuss the issue at its meeting, in April.
The British Show Horse Association, some of whom’s members were involved in the case, will discuss it this week.
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Simon Summers, the BSHA representative on the JMB said: “It is an ongoing problem that it’s hard to see a way around.”
To read the full news story on height certficates see the current issue of H&H (1 March)
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.